• 1560 - The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation of Scotland.
• 1594 - Henry IV is crowned King of France.
• 1617 - Sweden and Russia sign the Treaty of Stolbovo, ending the Ingrian War and shutting Russia out of the Baltic Sea.
• 1626 - Yuan Chonghuan is appointed Governor of Liaodong, after he led the Chinese into a great victory against the Manchurians under Nurhaci.
• 1700 - The island of New Britain is discovered.
• 1801 - Washington, DC is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
• 1812 - Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.
• 1844 - The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti.
• 1860 - Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that's largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.
• 1861 - A crowd in Warsaw protesting against Russian rule over Poland is fired upon by Russian troops, killing five protesters.
• 1864 - American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.
• 1900 - Second Boer War: In South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronje at the Battle of Paardeberg.
• 1900 - The British Labour Party is founded.
• 1921 - The International Working Union of Socialist Parties is founded in Vienna.
• 1922 - A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett.
• 1933 - Reichstag fire: Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, is set on fire.
• 1939 - American Civil Rights Movement: Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
• 1940 - Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14
• 1942 - World War II: During the Battle of the Java Sea, an allied (ABDA) strike force is defeated by a Japanese task force in the Java Sea in the Dutch East Indies
• 1943 - The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, explodes, killing 74 men.
• 1943 - The Rosenstrasse protest starts in Berlin
• 1945 - Lebanon declares Independence.
• 1951 - The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
• 1961 - The first congress of the Spanish Trade Union Organisation is inaugurated.
• 1963 - The Dominican Republic receives its first democratically elected president, Juan Bosch, since the end of the dictatorship led by Rafael Trujillo.
• 1964 - The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
• 1967 - Dominica gains independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1971 - Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (the Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start to perform aborti provocati.
• 1973 - The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
• 1974 - People magazine is published for the first time.
• 1976 - The formerly Spanish territory of Western Sahara, under the auspices of the Polisario Front declares independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
• 1986 - The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.
• 1989 - Venezuela is rocked by the riots of Caracazo.
• 1991 - Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated".
• 1999 - Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria's first elected president since mid-1983.
• 1999 - Korea International School is founded by Soon-Il Chung. It is currently directed by Ann Clapper.
• 2002 - Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire in London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticize Ryanair's handling of the evacuation.
• 2002 - Godhra train burning, a Muslim mob kills 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya;
• 2003 - Rowan Williams is enthroned as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury in the Anglican church.
• 2004 - A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines worst terrorist attack kills 116.
• 2004 - Former BPMC general secretary Ordrick Samuel launches a new party in Barbuda, Barbudans for a Better Barbuda.
• 2007 - The general strike against Lansana Conté in Guinea ends.
• 2007 - The Chinese Correction: the Shanghai Stock Exchange falls 9%, the largest drop in 10 years.
• 2008 - Mas Selamat bin Kastari, a suspected JI terrorism leader, escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre in Singapore.

Births